Pushed to the Limit: Chinese Environmental Governance and the 1998 China Floods
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Authors
Michell, Anthony
Issue Date
2024
Type
Thesis
Language
Keywords
1998 China Floods , Chinese Electric Vehicles , Chinese Environmental Authoritarianism , Chinese Environmental Governance , Chinese Land Reclamation , Maoist Environmental Governance
Alternative Title
Abstract
The 1998 China floods were the negative culmination of decades of Chinese Communist Party environmental policy, first under Mao and then under Deng, which removed the overflow capability of local river systems through land reclamation and deforestation. This disaster had the effect of shifting how the Chinese government viewed environmental governance as they came to recognize that environmental degradation could pose a threat to the stability of their regime as it had to those of the Qing and earlier dynasties. This was a significant change in governmental thinking as combating environmental degradation became a major state priority. However, the logic and approaches used by the Chinese government to counter this threat have a lot of similarities to those used before 1998. They are still highly reliant on ecologically damaging solutions like dams and electric vehicles to counter the effects of environmental degradation and still employ aggressive top-down campaigns to enact environmental enforcement.